Arsene Wenger says an aerial weakness that has plagued the side all season was to blame for today’s dropped points.
Having led 2-0, Arsenal conceded two headers as an Andy Carroll hat-trick put West Ham 3-2 ahead, only for a Laurent Koscielny equaliser to make it 3-3 and earn Arsenal a point.
Admitting he didn’t expect the England international to start the game, Wenger suggested that too many goals have been conceded to headers this season.
“We played with a weakness that is redundant in the season,” he said. “If you look at the goals we have conceded since the start of the season, most of them are headers in our box. That happened today.”
And the two minute spell just before half-time which saw the Hammers come back into the game also vexed the Frenchman.
“When you are 2-0 up with 43 minutes played, with the experience we have and the way we mastered the ball, then at 45 minutes it is 2-2, you put yourself in a decline,” he said.
“This is because you give hope to the other team, that is where that little moment in the game made us pay heavily.
“This is one of the places where you could drop points but you see the game and feel guilty you have dropped points.”
It’s not just this season though,it’s the last 10 fucking years we’ve been weak and flaky yet Wenger does fucking all to fix it, he needs to be pushed
Yeah, pushed out.
I’d like to point to manag-aerial weakness…
The players on the field change from year to year but the mental brittleness is a consistent thread over the last 5/6 seasons at least. I think Theo getting in squad ahead of Campbell is symptomatic of this. When Joels come in he’s been positive and busted a gut, fighting for every inch. He’s been hungry and effective, scoring and providing assists. Theo goes missing at least as regularly as when he has an impact. Yet Theo gets picked ahead of Campbell. What message does that send to the players? It doesn’t matter what you do or hard you try… Read more »
To be honest with you guys, I have given up talking about Wenger and the problems in Arsenal. Wenger is the problem full stop! Until he goes no joy in Arsenal.
Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin.
Absolutely agree. This is a weakness that’s been apparent for years and the manager has done nothing about it.
So pathetic and so frustrating.
It clearly suggests two things.
Firstly the defensive coaching at the Club – for the first team – is not right and hasn’t been for some time.
Secondly, the disinclination to address the problem via the last two transfer windows, was nothing short of negligent given the money is self evidently there.
Wenger is the point where the buck stops in both instances.
Get KOEMAN!!!!!…please.
Surely if it’s a problem that’s plagued us all season we would’ve done something to sort it out by now? Vexing indeed.
Yup, spot on Monsieur Wenger aerial weakness was obvious.
If only you had the tallest defender in league to call upon to counteract these aerial threats. If only…
What are you going on about? We have Mertesacker who is the tallest defender in the league. Wenger decided to leave him on the bench. You need to update yourself on the current players in the squad. Jesus wept…
Oh dear Crew!
Yes but mertersacker is not a strong player overall. He’s got height, sure but he’s a bit flimsy. He needs to get himself on the chest press.
I disagree a bit on this, I do not think the problem is necessarily because of the short defenders we have but the problem is the lack of commitment, tenacity, mental strength and the desire to get to the ball or stop the opponent from reaching the ball by any means necessary. Rob67 I believe you are right. I do not think anything has changed defensively since Buld came in. The defensive set up during corners and close free kicks are in shambles. The whole thing falls on Wenger’s inability to identify these problems. There is no top club that… Read more »
True. Take out Per, Giroud, and Cech and it shows. Obvious stuff really. And if they, Cech aside I guess, are not going to be 1st team regulars moving forward then other players will need to be brought in. A bigger defender to play alongside Kos for example.
Oh, and Crew, good god man. *whooooosh*
It was sarcasm on his sarcasm. brilliant comedy by me as seen by the up votes i got.
Glad that’s sorted, then. 😉
Whatever the case, and as much as I like his fire, I can’t for the life of me see how Gabriel is going to sort it all out and become a top defender – he seems to have weaknesses, or weak moments, everywhere. Maybe it’s just a matter of consistency. I hope so.
Wenger’s biggest mistake is that he refuses to change and adapt the team to suit the opponent. I honestly can’t remember the last time I noticed any work done to combat a specific threat. Even worse than that is the fact that even when things are going tits up he refuses to change the system to plug the blatant holes. Today was more evidence of that. Even if it wasn’t abundantly clear that Carroll was going to be an aerial threat, the second the first goal went in it should have sent off alarm bells. Ten game minutes later, with… Read more »
We are beyond predictable now. Everyone knew we’re going to play the same team only probably with Chech. And knowing this defence is weak against strong pushy attackers, WH had one option and it was to go with the one they got be him a bit limited and generally a big disappointment. Well it appears Wenger was the only one surprised by that. Adding a static goalkeeper was great bonus though. In that regard Wenger outsmarted himself…
As far as his capability to change tactics and adapt against opponents, he clearly can. But only when his precious top four is under threat. Just last year ironically he made tactical changes to counter West Ham’s aerial threat, at least according to his post match comments.
You can’t help but feel maybe Wenger just doesn’t give a shit. He is so comfortable at his job and pressure free that he doesn’t feel any need to bother until things have gone tits up and he comes under threat. Its a recurring theme at this point.
‘doesn’t give a shit’? no. he cares more about this club than you or i ever will. he may not get it right all the time, but don’t suggest he doesn’t care. he has devoted his life to arsenal fc.
“Cares more about this club than you or I?) how dare you! I’ve had a season ticket for nearly forty years, many fans spend very hard earned money going home and away, since before Wenger was manager. In his reign, he’s been paid in excess of £160 million! I don’t dispute that he cares about Arsenal, but don’t say he cares more thanks, he just doesn’t.
I meant he doesn’t care about challenging for titles. His care for the club, or at least its financial side, was clearly implied with his goal of achieving top four.
I disagree a bit on this, I do not think the problem is necessarily because of the short defenders we have but the problem is the lack of commitment, tenacity, mental strength and the desire to get to the ball or stop the opponent from reaching the ball by any means necessary. Rob67 I believe you are right. I do not think anything has changed defensively since Buld came in. The defensive set up during corners and close free kicks are in shambles. The whole thing falls on Wenger’s inability to identify these problems. There is no top club that… Read more »
It’s not only the arial threat, there’s always the ability to take the foot off the pedal once we’re in the lead and let the opposition back in the game.
With Steve Bould and all his knowledge of defending, we should be good at it.
Man City won and are now 2 points behind us.
We have to beat Palace on Saturday!
I miss Pat Rice…
I miss Willie Young, he’d have put Andy Carroll in row Z.
Does that mean we can’t win the league then? Good reaction to the reason we keep conceding headed goals in the box, by playing a struggling centre half and a keeper who won’t leave his line
He says “aerial weakness”
we say “managerial weakness”
Guys, read a bit between the lines, ffs. First, he assesses Walcott as bluntly as he could, given his principles. Now, he calls out the TEAM, for a problem they have not fixed all season. I think he is clearly indicating his frustration, and I HOPE that this will be followed by some ruthlessness this summer. Since he is not retiring as far as we know, his expressed frustration on these issues should imply he has lost patience with certain things and will do something to rectify them now. Only thing that still lingers, and rankles: Welbeck has everything, if… Read more »
If it’s been happening all season then why hasn’t it been rectified?
And last season, and the season before X 10
It’s staggering that he can identify aerial ability as a weakness still choose to play Ospina over Cech and Gabriel over Mertesacker. Wtf?
Especially when you know they have Caroll who is the best aerial striker in the league. Stats prove it.
None of these goals were down to Ospina. Keep it relevant.
Glad we’ve clearly worked on this weakness as the season has progressed
Hardly an aerial weakness when it’s Carroll. He’s probably one of the best players in the world in this area of the game.
Think today’s been a huge overreaction by some.
no disrespect chris but I’m not sure your getting at all, its not todays result that are making people overreact but a culmination of season after season of the same mistakes, same results and and same capitulation and the same old excuses . many fans have had enough of the problems and obvious flaws not being addressed.
We’ve all seen the film “Groundhog day”, you know the one, about a recurring nightmare. It feels to me like I’m (and many other Arsenal fans) walking around in a state of shock thinking “I can’t believe it’s happened again”. Season after season, hope springs eternal, season after season slowly all hope is crushed in a familiar and repetitive way. Wenger spewing out his default rhetoric about “mental strength”, “no one with enough quality to improve the team was available”, and my personal favourite, “we will fight until the end”. The mental strength line is a real killer because Aston… Read more »
How about mentioning the weakness in MANAGEMENT? Of course a win today wouldn’t have changed much, the season was over for a while already. Next season will be the same with Wenger in charge, like the last +10 years.
Wenger Out
Agreed. In fact the last twenty years have been an unmitigated disaster for us.
Let’s get shot of him now, dammit.
That comment is bordering on ridiculous…. The last 20 years, really? What about the doubles and the invincibles? Come on man, get a grip.
I’m guessing that’s sarcasm on his sarcasm
Has everyone seen the new Star Wars trailer
Looks good
I can’t wait for Rogue One to come out
Oh by the way Wenger out
Lol! Comment of the day.
The game summed up our season, played well in patches, pressed the self destruct button a couple of times, clawed our way back into it, then barely mustered anything in the last 20 minutes. It’s just become exhausting watching us and scary how I’ve become use to us doing this year in year out. But this season trumps them all knowing we will come 2/3rd (maybe) losing out to Leicester or Sp*rs……Well and truly bottled it, threw it away and I can’t see how we’d actually bounce back with this squad this season……
Arsenal have had more clean sheets than Spurs this season but they have never conceded more than 2 goals, while we have conceded 3 or more a couple of times. No matter how good your attack is, it’s very hard to win a game when you know you can concede 2 or more. In recent matches, United, Swansea, Spurs, and West Ham are all dropped points because of defense rather than attack, although we’ve only been complaining about our finishing this whole time. I think our priority next season shouldn’t be a striker but: – 1 proven DM that is… Read more »
Interesting he says “Aerial” threat as this defence couldn’t defend against a box of washing powder today!
Shit and Fuck!
And bollocks…
Is this a surprise? Last season when we were dropping points, I mentioned it was not an issue of a mythical ‘soft centre’ with Flamini or Arteta Rather we dropped points because we firstly tried Calum at Cback which cost us. Then we had to put Monreal in there which also cost us. We did not have a third choice Cback in Gabriel. Simply put, had Coquelin been avaialble, he would have not fared better than Arteta or Flamini. This season, Gabriel has had shaky moments playing with Koscielny. I mentioned that either man would play far better with Per… Read more »
So simply your saying the players aren’t good enough?
Who’s fault is that?
Buddy, can you compress that into a couple of lines for us humans ?
Life’s too short for most of us.
Give it a rest, man. Nobody mentioned Flamini today, yet you bring him up. He’s not the cause of all or problems, neither is he a good player.
Simple as that!! Flamini playing would not change anything.
Only this guy would blame elneny and coq for today performance.
ospina-too error prone and lacks command in his area.An aerial liability and lacks awareness. bellerin-he is good but needs more experience and discipline Koscienly-An okay player but as charlie nicholas said he is not worldclass and had never been. He is our best defender but I feel he is still at the smalling level. gabriel-He is too lightheaded and lacks the brains Mertz-Werent dinosaurs extinct already?Well here is one. chambers-very irresponsible and below par. Villa defenders would put him to shame. monreal-He has beem consistent for not so long and is seemingly dwindling there is a big problem at leftbackA… Read more »
“Wenger is a sc-mbug (???) j#ck@ss id!ot”
You Sir…should look closer to home
Unfortunately, we have to suffer same despair next season with this man – Wengar in charge with his average players. Sick and tired of listening to his excuses. God help us to get Wenger out.
Before you lay in on the gaffer (and he made the wrong call with Gabriel), you should remember that most here would have agreed with that line up he put out when it was announced. Many were waxing lyrical about the team turning the corner just recently after Everton and the last game. Conveniently and in hind sight, now its the manager’s fault. Many would have had no issue with what they saw in the line up with consistency in selection so key to what Leicester has done recently. Players in good form should start. Nothing wrong with that. But… Read more »
who do we blame then? the players ? wengers signings every one of them? poor coaching, nope wenger again.
apologists for wenger like yourself need to realise its not just about this season, and this has been the worst in many seasons by a mile. its a culmination of so many ground hog days that we have become a standing joke in the media.
Every year he never misses a chance to tell us pleb fans and the media about how clueless we are next to his 40 years of managerial experience. Yet at the end of the day the best excuse his defenders can come up with is “b-b-but most you would have picked the same line up”?
The reason we concede so many headers is that our attacking players, especially the wide ones, do not work hard enough to stop the crosses from coming in. Sanchez,Walcott, Ox are rarely pressing the opposing full back. The best person in the squad at it is Campbell but apparently he isn’t allowed to play any more.
Why is Gabriel starting ahead of Per?
Everyone in this comment section should be the new manager….
What West Ham did was to correctly identify our weakness. Ospina isn’t the best at commanding the box and needs protection from his Cback. Per is probably the best in the box marshalling crosses in concert with Koscielny as a combination. Gabriel has been suspect positionally with crosses. He is in many ways similar to Koscielny and is better clearing the ball on the deck. He has improved significantly in recent matches but again this whole argument that Per is not as good as Gabriel because he is as slow as treacle does not hold much water. Ditto the ‘protection’… Read more »
For the love of God, not everything is about Flamini nor is somehow Coquelin being in the team when 13 goals are scored in 7 games, statistically relevant unless you want to include all the other players (one by one) who also played those same 7 games in your critique. Defense, like team balance, is about team play and truthfully the goals that came about by West Ham where either the direct result of turnovers, or came from crosses from the wings and an inability or lack of desire to close out the opponents who made those crosses. All the… Read more »
To be fair to Wenger, who could have predicted that a team with Andy Carroll in it would use a strategy of floating lofted balls into the box?
At 2 nil up with only a few minutes to go to half time the team showed the tactical nous of a box of frogs. The only real threat West Ham had shown was a cross into the box from out wide to a big central striker. Real obvious stuff that our technical staff should have sorted. FFS how hard is it? Stop the supply or stifle the man in the middle, or both. Credit for pulling one back to salvage a draw but it should never have got to that stage.
Unbelievable!!!
Now that I think about it, what really bothers me is that Carroll was on a yellow for almost the whole game. You’d think that would make it easier for our defenders to constrain him, since he’d be wary of putting himself about too much.
But nope.
I’m sorry but i am done listening to these stupid excuses season after season. No reason whatsoever for us not winning the league this year. Same weaknesses every year. Absolutely blew it. I don’t care if Per is slow, his positional awareness is superb. Gabriel is a bloody joke. Good luck next season against Conte Pep Klopp and Mou. We’re a bloody joke And if Cech is fit just fucking play him. Not sure what Wenger is trying to do playing Ospina. Not that Ospina did anything wrong just that it’s a criminal waste not playing your best player. Who… Read more »
Bloody even breakups are more bearable than watching Arsenal fail season after season. Same shit excuses every fucking year. I’ve really had it. I’ve always supported Wenger coz he had valid reasons for our failure but what about this year? This was “our year”. We really need a change
I’m watching the Masters golf and it’s helping…
I find his comments remarkable.. Arsene now embarrasses me to such an extent that I am feeling sorry for him.
We drew away from home against a form side – that’s the way he sees it and he is right at that moment.
It seems ridiculous that seeing A. Carroll on the starting line ups genuinely struck fear in to me and has done for many years.
I can’t quite believe the ‘soft touch’ issue still hangs around this squad and it really is starting to sit in one place. I’ve been an ardent Wenger fan (even after this 2016 shit storm) but the inevitability of seeing A. Carroll and knowing what that would (most likely) result in just leaves a sour taste after all these years.
One sad gooner
If only we had a sturdy, experienced 6’4″ CB
What, the slow bloke everyone thinks is past it??
Hindsight…
Winston Reid … we need a bit of Kiwi warrior. Should have bought him five years ago when he was recommended to Wenger by me via email to the Arsenal media people. Not a bad player now eh …? FFS …
If only. But unfortunately we don’t.
Two points lost yet again to : 1. Manager error by leaving Cech and Marte out of the start line up. 2. Gabriel is not a player fit for a PL contender. All heart,less brain. 3. We lack a decent defensive game play. We defend OK when we’re under pressure, in open game we are a place between bad and miserable. The last I believe is a combination that Arsene doesn’t put to much effort in it + we lack a captain that communicates with his defense. I like Kos as a player,but you rarely see him open his mouth… Read more »
Just incredible.
We the mighty Gooners have been pointing things out for years: Top quality keeper, lethal striker, a Vieira type DM, a top notch centreback (who can hear the ball!) to partner the Boss…the list goes on!
Sign in the summer or leave.
Ps. Anyone but Spuds.
The scapegoating of Gabriel going on is harsh imo. It’s customary after a bad result is to scapegoat a player or two and then question why “player B” didn’t play instead but I doubt we’d have fared any better had Mertesacker played. I’ve seen people say he’s culpable for all three goals so I’ve rewatched them all several times. For the first goal for which Cresswell had all the time in the world to pick out a cross, Koscielny is the nearest centre-back and it’s Monreal who Carroll stooped over to score. That’s Gabriel’s fault? The second goal is probably… Read more »
Well that posted moved over a couple of topics!
Agreed on Gab and on the fence on Arsene.
COYG.
*post
The problem with Arsenal is SQUIRREL. Over there, did you see him?
What I find funny is that all the “big teams” who have supposed “great coaches” are all “struggling”. Struggling of course meaning they are not sitting at number 1. Yet, the answer to “our problem” is our coach! Get rid of Wenger, and we will become EPL champions immediately. Or we could just go buy us a striker like a Suarez, Messi, Renaldo, or Neymar. After all, that is easy to do. There are so many that are available. The one common denominator that I see, is that unlike Leicester that doesn’t have the schedule that the “big teams,” these… Read more »
There’s no doubt that the schedule and injuries (and tiredness) issue is a factor, but with Arsenal’s money we should have the depth to cover. But Wenger always leaves us short of quality cover and we always suffer for it.
We need the team spirit of the likes of Leicester, or George Graham’s Arsenal, did the “Invincibles” have team spirit or where they just a brilliant bunch of fit players at the cutting edge thanks to Arsene?
I would like an Ian Holloway type of manager to get them going!
Off to bed…..COYG!
At last some common sense. So very rare.
And how many of these great coaches struggling will be at their job next year? Only one. Unfortunately.
Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool have practically handed this season over to us on a silver platter. It is just that we do not know how to use a fork and knife. They have addressed their issues and are making changes. The only one not changing is Klopp because he is yet to build his team. We seem to be the only team not addressing glaring issues. For me the biggest issues needing addressing are: 1. Lack of depth in the squad which results in more injuries due to players being overworked and not rotated enough. 2. Mentality.… Read more »
We also seem to have a “give the crosser plenty of space and time to pick out his ball” problem.
Coq should have been on top of that..:-)
If only TGSTEL was still in the squad…
You know the worst about this? West Ham have to play United midweek and Leicester afterwards. I wouldn’t be surprised they used all of their energy against us and roll over against Manchester and Leicester. Arsenal, helping its rivals since more than 10 years.
Why are you worrying about Leicester? They are 13 points ahead of us, not realistically catchable.
I am hoping that West Ham go to extra time against Man Utd so they are cream crackered for Sunday. Need another win for Leicester to stop Spuds catching up with them.
If Leicester had lost against Sunderland, I would’ve cared. Now, not so much. Btw, we are 11 points behind because we will win our game in hand. Not that it matters anyway.
Its good to know that after 12 years this ‘redundant’ old man is starting to recognise at least one of our many recurring problems.
Play your best team, means Cech in. That would have helped with crosses and organisation. West Ham avoided the solid central pairing in our midfield by playing wide, so why were our wide MF not told to track back or play deeper, particularly at 2-0 up? Stop the crosses. Tactical naivety and weak management in not playing our best team – is this likely to change next season ?
At least he is admitting not correcting a long-term problem…not that he feels he has to explain to anyone why he hasn’t corrected it…
The worst thing about the comments is that it shows the smugness/arrogance of a man who knows he can do whatever the fuck he wants and nobody in the club will say boo to him, I mean how can a manager come out and tell the world that the team has had a major problem all year yet do fuck all about it.there’s no other job in the world where you could admit that things in your control are fucked up yet you can’t/won’t fix them and face no sanction what so ever. I’m afraid Wenger ain’t going anywhere and… Read more »
In response to the headline… ‘You think Arsene?’
Theo Walcott anyone??
Have any of you identified any big bastard defenders in world football these days? In the Sol mold? I can’t think of any really. Ashley Williams, should have bought him 3 years ago.
Points.
IT just got worse for us.
We need to catch Spurs forget about the title.
Small change to have to try and fashion a St Totteringham’s day instead of the big prize but the pride is at stake now.
Spurs are in excellent form.
blah blah blah
Tot gonna finish in 2nd, thats ahead of the Arse by the way……..mite be a wake up call, but I doubt it